World’s best 25 coding teams to compete with India’s best 25 teams in Mumbai

- The only competition to operate without any age limits

- Schools, colleges and organizations invited to participate on a single global platform

- Cash awards over USD 22,500, job offers with Directi and many other exciting prizes to be won

CodeChef, a non-profit educational initiative of Directi, a technology and web products company, today announced the much awaited 3rd edition of their annual onsite programming competition – SnackDown 2016!

CodeChef’s SnackDown will be a multi-round computer programming contest with each team having a maximum of 2 members from the same institute/organization, competing for the ultimate title of “SnackDown 2016 Champions”, cash awards in excess of USD 22,500 along with an opportunity to work at Directi, and many other exciting prizes. The competition allows coding in over 50 programming languages supported by one of the largest coding platforms, CodeChef. The response received last year, encouraged the organizers to revise the format, facilitating greater participation.

The contest starts on 27th May, with first online qualifier round, and concludes on 9th July with the Onsite Grand Finale after pre-elimination and elimination rounds in between.

After a very successful run last year with 11,000 plus participants hailing from 1602 institutes spread across 131 countries, this year’s SnackDown is getting bigger and truly global. Last year witnessed only the top Indian teams participating onsite, whereas the highlight of SnackDown 2016 will be 25 international teams of the world’s top programmers competing with top 25 Indian teams in Mumbai at the CodeChef headquarters – Directiplex. Additionally, slots have been reserved for a middle/high-school team as well as an all girls’ team.

“It will be the first time that some of the most celebrated programmers from all over the world will gather under one roof in India, for an all-expense paid trip. It’s an unparalleled opportunity for Indian programmers to interact with them, assess where they stand with respect to coders across the globe and maybe even learn from them. Since its inception in 2009, CodeChef has seen over 9.6 million code submissions with over 1,200 contests hosted on the platform. We expect these numbers to grow in leaps and bounds over the next few years”, said Anup Kalbalia, BU Head, CodeChef.

SnackDown is the only programming competition where skill, talent and passion prevail over age and seniority. It pits programmers from schools, colleges, and organizations against each other on a global platform, offering opportunities to showcase their programming prowess and establish themselves as a force to reckon with in the coding world.

Balajiganapathi Senthilnathan, SnackDown 2015 Indian Champion (currently working with Directi) adds, “It is inspiring to see the passion and skills of all the contestants, especially the school students. India has a lot of untapped talent, and SnackDown, with its high quality algorithms, excellent organization and huge rewards is sure to draw more and more Indian students towards competitive coding.”

With the aim of nurturing the Indian coding talent and putting it on the world map, Co-founder and CEO of Directi, Bhavin Turakhia, encourages the coding enthusiasts to participate, “Programming is fun to learn and one doesn’t have to be an aspiring engineer to be a coder. Today, almost every field makes use of computer programming, where problem solving forms an essential part. SnackDown helps develop one’s ability to think logically and, it may even help one secure the most coveted job in the world. But that’s not why one should do it. Do it for the fun! This is in many ways India’s future where these amazing developers and potential entrepreneurs will create outstanding products to change many lives, and I’m looking forward to it.”

The registrations for the SnackDown 2016 will open on 5th May at 2100 hours IST, and will continue till 30th May 2016. You can find more information about the competition, its rules, eligibility, and the registration process at: https://www.codechef.com/snackdown

About CodeChef:

CodeChef is a non-profit educational initiative of Directi, a technology and web products company. It is a global competitive programming platform that started in 2009 and currently holds 4.6 lakhs registered users. It supports over 50 programming languages and has hosted over 1200 contests on its platform so far. With active users of around 3 lakhs, it binds together a large community of programmers that helps students and professionals test and improve their coding skills. Its objective is to provide a platform for practice, competition and improvement for both students and professional software developers. Apart from this, it aims to reach out to students while they are young and inculcate a culture of programming in India.­­­